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The Bhagavad Gita: a biography - Richard. H. Davis
Introduction
● It opens on a field battle at Kurukshetra (Northern India) ● Two massive armies lined up: the one led by the Pandavas and the other led by the Kauravas. ● Cacophonous roar in the background (drums, cymbals + conch shells). ● Arjuna asks Krishna. his charioteer, to put his vehicle in between the two forces because he wanted to see the men ready for war. Krishna drives his chariot in the no-man's-land. ● Arjuna is overcome with anxiety and despair -> crisis. He doesn’t want to fight anymore. He sees people he grew up with family members and teachers, masters. ● Krishna’s task is to persuade Arjuna to overcome his doubts.
Dialogue Krishna-Arjuna starts. It touches on many ethical dilemmas, religious practices and philosophical issues that concerned Indian elites of ancient times. As Krishna instructs Arjuna, he draws on ideas from the many contending schools of thought in classical India, and seeks to integrate them within his own overarching agenda ● In the course of their conversation, Krishna reveals to Arjuna that he is the Supreme Lord.
1.The Bhagavad Gita in the Time of Its Composition
● Forms part of the ⇾ Mahabharata: vast epic poem in classical Sanskrit ● Tells the story of ⇾ a devastating rivalry between two clans of the ruling class for control of Hastinapura kingdom in northern India. ● Dialogue ⇾ between two leading characters: Arjuna and Krishna ● Conversation deals ⇾ with the moral propriety of war (and much else) ● Start ⇾ Arjuna in confusion and despair drops his weapons. ● End ⇾ Arjuna picks up his bow, doubts resolved, ready for war. ● (War begins ⇾ Mahabharata continues)
B.G. circulated as an independent work, a self-standing work of religious philosophy. Double identity: independent text/ portion of Mahabharata ⇾ This book talks about Gita on its own, but to gain full sense of the rhetorical power it had in its own time of composition necessary to consider it as a portion of a larger epic.
The Gita in Mahabharata
● 2 sets of brothers related as cousins : 5 Pandava brothers ⇾ sons of Pandu and his two wives. 100 Kaurava brothers ⇾ offspring of Dhritarashtra (blind), elder brother to Pandu When Pandu dies, the blind king takes in the orphaned sons of his brother, Pandavas and Kauravas grow up together in Hastinapura; they are educated and trained together as members of the warrior class ● Deep rivalry grows (unremitting antagonism between the cousins) ⇾ the elders decide to partition the kingdom Pandavas are sent out to the hinterlands and they set up a new capital from scratch (where now actual Delhi stands) ⇾ this only exacerbates the jealousy of the Kauravas. Pandavas are forced to a 14 year exile but then they return ⇾ animosity grows even greater, war appears inevitable , reconciliation becomes impossible ● Shortly before the battle ⇾ Duryodhana and Arjuna travel to visit Krishna. To avoid favoritism Krishna makes an offer: one may have his enormous army, the other may have Krishna himself. D. chooses the army and A. chooses Krishna (both happy with the outcome) ● Krishna: ⇾ a ruler of a kingdom in western India, he forms a special friendship with the Pandavas ⇾ an adviser to the Pandavas ⇾ a diplomat seeking reconciliation between the two sides ⇾ divine nature: recognized by a few wise figures, he reveals himself to A. ● Both armies line up in the Kurukshetra field ● Arjuna asks Krishna to drive their vehicle in the middle of the two sides ⇾ he wants to survey in a better way the enemies , every individual ● Terrifying roar in the background ● Arjuna loses all his zeal for battle, it’s not worthy to fight and kill one’s own kin. It’s in a crisis overcome by grief and indecision. “I will not fight” ● Krishna task is to ⇾ convince Arjuna to overcome his anxieties and fight
Yudhishthira (eldest Pandava) agree reluctantly to take his duty ⇾ he’s filled with grief (he has post-traumatic disorder). He performs a horse sacrifice. ● After 32 years ⇾ The 5 Pandavas brothers retire from the capital. They head North into the Himalayas ⇾ in hopes of reaching heaven.
How does one comprehend a holocaust of such magnitude? The survivors struggle for the rest of their lives to swallow the bitter fruits of the war. Grief never ends. They only manage to carry on their responsibilities in the postwar world.
The Mahabharata ⇾ provides several frames for understanding the war at the center of the epic: ● Sacrifice ⇾ (In line with the Vedic tradition) It is central to maintenance of order at every level, human and cosmic. Extreme disorder ⇾ requires an extreme form of sacrifice. All-consuming war ⇾ to establish a unitary Indian Empire ruled by one king ● Eschatological interpretation in cosmic terms , a Cosmic purging. Earth is overrun by demons ⇾ requires an apocalyptic battle to get rid of this malign force and reestablish earthly order. (Indian tradition about cyclic time: great universal dissolution can then be followed by a new creation .) ● Transition from one era to another ⇾ war at Kurukshetra represents deterioration of the Dvapara era, and then begins the Kali-yuga era
Composition
There are many different hypothesis about authorship: ● God, Krishna ⇾ many Hindu believers have accepted divine authorship. ● Vyasa ⇾ Textual historians (not satisfied with attributions of divine authorship to religious scriptures) have tried to identify human historical Krishna. The most common traditional Indian answer: Vyasa (a Brahmin sage, he appears as a character), but textual historians only refer to Vyasa as “mythical/symbolic” author.
The Mahabharata ⇾ portrays its own composition as a complex sequence of oral retellings involving multiple speakers. Indological scholars have debated for so long the question of its historical composition.
● Most textual historians assume ⇾ some form of multiple authorship. They generally postulate that the epic began with oral storytellers and performers relating heroic tales that looked back to some long-past historical dispute. ● Recent scholarships ⇾ believes that religious and political developments like the rise of Buddhism and Jainism provided the transformation into a new narrative of old stories. ● James Fitzgerald ⇾ it is an initial shorter and porous work , a proto-Baharata that expanded ● Alf Hiltebeitel ⇾ an interdisciplinary compositional committee of brahmanic intellectuals working under the patronage of the Shungas
There is still a debate about the compositional relationship between the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita: ● Gita as ⇾ an extrinsic interpolation into the epic story - Indological scholars, Franklin Edgerton says that the pause of the Gita is a “dramatic absurdity”. ● Gita as ⇾ an integral portion of the Mahabharata - Recent scholars, J.A.B. Van Buitenen argues that it wasn’t an independent text that wandered into the epic but it was conceived and created in context of it.
New listeners and readers, bringing their concerns, rise many new Gita-based compositions after engaging in it ⇾ it’s a rich, complex, ambiguous creation. Because of this ⇾ it has a continuing life over the centuries.
2. Krishna and his Gita in Medieval India
In medieval India ● Krishna was already the center of a widespread and vigorous devotional cult but ⇾ it wasn’t his role as Arjuna’s instructor that held the greatest attraction ● Hindu devotion towards him focused on his early life ⇾ growing up in a tribe of cowherders, portrayed as a restless infant and a seductive flute-playing young man ● The audience of the B.G. ⇾ a more circumscribed and erudite one ● The gita circulated as an independent work, it was influential enough to inspire other “gitas”
Krishna’s Early Life and the Culture of Devotion
Krishna had an unusual upbringing for a king + Krishna had a shady past ● Early in the Mahabharata ⇾ king Shishupala of Cedi berates Krishna for his humble background (cowherder) ● Once the king insults Krishna one too many times ⇾ Krishna beheads the king with his razor-sharp discus Many people were interested in this topic and a large new work was written ⇾ the Harivamsha : a supplement to the Mahabharata, a prequel for the intriguing character of Krishna. Over the succeeding centuries the life of Krishna would be retold with variations in many different works such as: ⇾ Vishnu Purana ⇾ Brahma Purana ⇾ Bhagavata Purana (the most influential)
The Bhagavata Purana ● Retells K’s biography ⇾ with a combination of theological sophistication and devotional fervor ● It solidified the legendary biography ● It provided point of departure for further developments in K. devotionalism ● It illustrates and amplifies many of his key points in the B.G. ⇾ and pushes his teaching in new directions
criminals and sinners Who direct their love towards him + who focus on him with hatred also find themselves delivered
In the B. Purana ● Krishna’s story isn’t just an historical narrative ⇾ it has a permanent resonance (Medieval India agreed) ● Anyone born after Krishna’s departure can gain the same salvation ⇾ reciting, retelling, hearing, reading, thinking or meditating on his deeds. This enables to reenact the same state of minds and emotions of those who lived with him.
The Bhagavata Purana narration ⇾ helped the growth of the culture of devotion in medieval India. It formed the basis for a profusion of devotional literature + religious activity around the subcontinent: ● Birth of religious sculpture of Krishna from 500 to 1500 CE ⇾ sculptors concentrate on Krishna’s youthful exploits ● Birth of dance dramas ⇾ like the Rasa-lilas ● Krishnaite devotional poets
Other Gods’ Gitas
In medieval India, Krishna was not the only god who sang. ● The gitas of other gods ⇾ form a genre of religious poems of medieval literature called “The Puranas” (or “old traditions”): ⇾ Ishvara Gita ⇾ Shiva Gita ⇾ Ganesha GIta ⇾ Rama Gita ⇾ Brahma Gita ⇾ Devi Gita ⇾ Yama Gita ⇾ others… ● They appear as dialogues between the deities (that try to persuade the listener) and one or more auditors in a state of doubt or despair (like the B.G.) ● Discourses that contain: ⇾ instructions on the fundamental nature of the world (differs from school to school of thought) ⇾ guidance for effective human conduct: leading to liberation
The B.G. served a formal model for these divine songs, but they weren’t only simple imitations ⇾ new teachings for new audiences. In fact, in medieval theistic Hinduism : ● vigorous competition among the gods
Vedanta and the Gita of the Commentators
Throughout the medieval period ⇾ the B.G. was taken as an independent work that conveyed valuable philosophical and religious truth
● many teachers wrote commentaries ⇾ to articulate that truth ● the authors of these commentaries ⇾ are exponents of widely divergent schools of thought and practice ● there’s a recent compilation of 227 Sanskrit commentaries ● Commentary : ⇾ in medieval times, was a prolific form of Sanskrit literary practice ⇾ in medieval times, served to bridge the gap in comprehension between older texts and new audiences, many ancient texts were difficult to understand and incomprehensible without a commentary ⇾ for modern students in India, provides a windows into the ways of philosophical writers and readers understood the B.G. (in Medieval times) ● the two best-known authors are ⇾ Shankara and Ramanuja (both Vedanta)
Shankara ● Wrote his commentary in the 9th century CE (he wasn’t the first to write one) ● He points out that the Gita’s message contains the concentrated essence of the meaning of the entire Veda but it’s not easy to understand ⇾ misapprehensions still rife among the public ● So, he proposed ⇾ a succinct exposition that shows what he considers the true meaning of the B.G.
Vedanta (Vedism) ● The best-known commentaries ⇾ philosophical school of Vedanta ● Vedanta means ⇾ “the end of the Veda ” (the final portion of the Vedic corpus) ⇾ “the culmination of the Veda” (teachings are said to complete or bring to fruition the knowledge of the Vedas) ● There are distincts schools of Vedanta: different ontological orientations ⇾ Advaita - nondualist , exponent: Shankara ⇾ Dvaita - dualist, exponent: Madhva ⇾ Vishishtadvaita - qualified nondualist , exponent: Ramanuja ● Vedanta philosophers selected the B.G. ⇾ as one of their key works for philosophical articulation It was considered ⇾ one of the 3 canonical texts, 3 “points of departure” for any Vedanta exponent (the other 2: Upanishads and Brahma Sutras). Together these text are called “ prasthanatraya” and they answer all significant questions
● Krishna ⇾ was associated with frivolity, self-indulgence. sensuality and immoral conduct + those devoted to him were judged harshly (Monier Monier-Williams said that “the system of devotion has degenerated and has become rotten to the core”)
Indian emerging nationalist movement P.V. ● Krishna’s bad reputation ⇾ problem ● The solution ⇾ reconstruct the character of Krishna on firmer historical grounds ● Many writers and politicians like Lajpat Rai or Chatterjee put a lot of effort in a recalibration of Krishna’s personality. His early life was radically amended (modified) and the focus was placed on his grown-up role as Arjuna’s charioteer. ● Krishna was no longer seen as a self-indulgent child/seductive adolescent but as a great teacher,warrior and a man of great learning Lajpat Rai ● Lawyer, journalist,educational reformer, relief worker and political leader ● Wrote a series of short biographies of “Great Men of the world”. He talks about some Italian figures like Giuseppe Mazzini and Garibaldi charmed by the overcoming of internal divisions and foreign oppression typical of Italian Risorgimento. He talks also about Shivaji, Dayanasa Saraswati and also he took on Krishna in 1900 In his “Yogiraj Shri Krishna”: How can one reconcile the frivolous depiction of the cowherd Krishna, tempting lover of the Gopis, with the dignified teacher of the Bhagavad Gita? ● He encountered a serious problem of sources ⇾ in his work he assumes that earlier sources are more trustworthy than later ones, the closer in time to the life of Krishna is the oldest strata of the Mahabharata , composed in a period earlier than the Upanishads (probably 1520 BCE) ● He proved Krishna’s real historical existence ⇾ citing many references to Sanskrit literature ● Was Krishna an incarnation of God? ⇾ From his p.v. K’s never made such claim and that the incarnation theory is a “creative projection” later added + Krishna’s doubleness is a poetic hyperbole ● He goes on telling the life of Krishna as a ⇾ “model human being” ● He identifies 2 dangerous tendencies among youths in colonial India 1 ⇾ Western materialism has seduced the minds of many youths weaning them from the fundamental truths of Hinduism and leaving them open to the Western way of life 2 ⇾ The Indic tradition of world renunciation: youths think only of spiritual development and hold all worldly pleasures as despicable The life and teachings of krishna present an alternative to both dangers: do oneself own duty + not renouncing or indulging oneself. From his p.v. Indians youths should commit themselves to opposing British colonial rule even risking their lives as he did.
Varieties of Karma Yoga
In 1907, Lajpat Rai ⇾ was arrested for leading agrarian agitations in the Punjab region, he was deported without trial in Burma.
During his incarceration ⇾ he wrote an interpretative essay on the “Message of the B.G” and he stresses that: ● Dharma (personal duty) should be the supreme law of one’s life. The paths of knowledge, devotion come second ⇾ Krishna’s primary purpose is to persuade Arjuna to fight, all else is secondary ⇾ Once one recognize it, no consideration of self-interest, love or mercy should distract one from it ● Krishna above al advocates the path of Karma Yoga ⇾ the most fundamental according to Lajpat Rai All this has clear present-day political implications stresses Rai ⇾ “A nation's prosperity and success depend upon wisdom like that of Krishna and bravery like that of Arjuna” ● Lajpat Rai wasn’t the only one to enlist the B.G. in the cause of Indian Independence ⇾ it was significantly used by those who sought a more active, confrontational response to British colonial rule ● Those people valued too Krishna’s emphasis on selfless duty-based worldly action
- viewed Karma Yoga as his most important teaching ● But there were profound differences among these activist interpreters!
Differences among interpreters
Young Revolutionaries Extremists Hindu Nationalists
- Anushilan Samiti
- Khudiram Bose and Yugantar
- Aurobindo
- Tilak
- Swami Shraddhananda
- Hedgewar and the RSS
Anushilan Samiti - Young Revolutionaries ● 20th century, Bengal ● To enter the inner circle of the association , an initiation was required ⇾ lying flat on human skeleton (willingness to die in the cause of freedom) holding a revolver in one hand and the B.G. in the other + recitation of the group’s oath ● Cadre-based revolutionary network ⇾ they trained themselves in the use of lathi, swords and other weapons + celebrated virtues of manly strength against British stereotype of Indian effeminacy ● They were convinced that insurrectionary violence against the british was the best path for gaining independence ⇾ propaganda and terrorist actions ● 2 types of literature circulated: 1 ⇾ How-to works on bomb making + military techniques 2 ⇾ Works like the Gita to provide a rationale and stimulus for the group's activities ● The fullest religious foundation for their efforts ⇾ Kshatriya dharma Krishna’s persuasive urging of Arjuna to fight in a righteous battle + emphasis on selfless devotion to a greater cause
Khudiram Bose and Yugantar - Young Revolutionaries Bose inspired by Ghose ⇾ joined the underground group led by Aurobindo’s brother ● In 1908 they carried a bomb attack ⇾ carriage of District Judge D.H. Kingsford. responsible for bringing cases against activist newspapers like “Bande Mataram” ● K.B.was one of the first martyrs of the Indian struggle for independence ⇾
Intro + Swami - Hindu nationalists ● The new cult of Bharat Mata ⇾ became apparent with the emergence of Hindu nationalism in several new incarnations: Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS ● Fundamental question raised concerned the identity of the putative Indian nation: ⇾ India defined as a territorial nation, a geographic entity as the Congress said? or ⇾ an ethnic nation whose nature resided in its indu-ness as groups said? Swami came to the conclusion that this definition should prevail
Hedgewar and the RSS - Hindu nationalists ● In 1925 ⇾ established the RSS ● Inspired by Tilak’s works ⇾ heroism of Shivaji ● In 1916 ⇾ renounced both marriage and medical practice ⇾ to dedicate himself only to the freedom movement ● In 1920 ⇾ he worked in Gandhi’s noncooperation campaign + sent to prison
From his p.v. only Hinduism could motivate the population to achieve independence and reform society ⇾ but the community was weak and divided, to reedy that affliction he organized the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) ● Primary aim of the RSS ⇾ build strength and character among Hindu males (the model grew out of his reading of the Gita) ● Each person has a divinely implanted personal dharma, a set of duties and responsibilities ⇾ act in accord with that dharma contributes to the well-being of society, act contrary is egocentric and disruptive of the social order ● Value of Nishkama Karma = action without desire ⇾ is crucial ● Hedgewar designed RSS training to engage them in both physical and moral cultivation that would make them effective karma yogins ● Path of Karma Yoga: best when combined with the discipline of devotion ⇾ Bhakti ● Aim ⇾ remove all layers of individual ego identity and merge his own ego with that of the nation (the feminine divine mother) ● Muslims and Chrisians + Westernized elites ⇾ pose insidious dangers in his p.v.
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar ● Lawyer and Dalit spokesperson ● Insisted on the Gita as a historical work composed at a certain time ⇾ criticized those who sought to give it a universal significance ● He was against the powerful critique of Buddhism by the Brahmins ⇾ he proposed that Buddhism offers a superior ethical foundation for Indian nationhood
Gandhi’s Nonviolent Gita Gandhi ⇾ the most dedicated to the Gita among Indian nationalist readers. He saw it as a “spiritual reference book” “dictionary of daily reference” “book of home remedies” “mother”⇾ Came back to it several times for clarification and nurturance ● 1888/1889 in London ⇾ first reading (Arnold’s translation) alongside the life of “Buddha Shakyamuni" and Christian Bible. He approached the text as a possible revelation or source of Truth not specifically Hindu ● The Gita became a constant point of reference in his talks and writings
⇾ his “infallible guide to conduct” ● In 1915 he established an ashram at Sabarmati ⇾ recitation of the B.G. was a central part of the prayer sessions ● early 1920s he was imprisoned ⇾ read Tilak’s work + compiled “ Gitakosh ” a glossary of terms from the work ● In 1926 ⇾ presented a series of talks at his ashram ● In 1929 he made his own Gujarati translation + composed and intro to the translation about the discipline of non-attached action ⇾ most succinct interpretive statement on the Gita ● 1930-32 he was imprisoned again ⇾ wrote a series of letters to the ashram, a simplified chapter-by-chapter summary of K’s teachings ● in Jan. 1948 ⇾ last recorded discussion (3 days before his assassination) ● He was killed on the 30/01/1948 during a public prayer session
His interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita is a deeply political act ⇾ he faced several challenges writing in the 1920s ● He views Karma Yoga ⇾ the most relevant teaching ● In light of his commitment to nonviolence (ahimsa) and desire to make this a fundamental principle of the independence movement: ⇾ he had to counter those like Tilak that justified the use of violence in a righteous cause ⇾ he seeks to separate the Gita from the more Hinduist claims on the text like RSS ● He asserts that the Mahabharata is not history but a work that treats religious and ethical questions + he’s indifferent to the question of K’s historical existence ⇾ the idea of him as a divine incarnation is a later invention, from Gandhi p.v. he’s “perfection and right knowledge personified” ● No historical reading but allegorical reading ⇾ Kurukshetra is within each of us , the struggle between dharma and adharma, good and evil, divine and demoniac impulses. As a nonhistorical moral allegory the Mahabharata and the Gita have permanent value ● The aim is to obtain “self-realization” and to “become like unto God” ⇾ Trough renunciation of the fruits of action Gandhi emphasizes that it can be carried out in the midst of worldly activities. He criticizes those who follow paths of renunciation or devotion to the exclusion of worldly duties (this type of religious devotionalism gets in the way of work) ⇾ The higher ideal is sthitaprajna, who utilizes the yogic disciplines of self-control to carry out social duties. This is the true yogi in G’s p.v. ● He points out that the Mahabharata is not a glorification of physical warfare but a proof of its futility ⇾ victors are left with nothing but misery ⇾ to “fight” means that one should do what he regards as his duty ⇾ every action requires a choice, doing one’s duty requires and inner struggle, the internal battle is to overcome our self-centered actions and base them on disinterested responsibility : this is the perpetual fight that Krishna urges on us all ● Differences with Tilak about violence
● Described his vision of integral yoga and spiritual evolution on global scale ● Built an ashram in Pondicherry
The Gita remained fundamental , he wrote interpretive essays on themes of the Gita ● Uninterested in the historicist approach ⇾ he wishes to seek the permanent living truths applicable to the spiritual needs of our present-day humanity ● The gita isn’t systematic but ⇾ a synthesizing work ● The gita isn’t a weapon for dialectal warfare but ⇾ a gate that opens out into a world of spiritual truth and experience ● The gita carries an essential and living message ⇾ that all humanity needs for its own spiritual evolution in the new global age ● The gita would serve as a crucial starting point for a new spiritual synthesis extending to all humanity ⇾ more than any other Hindu text it would ne the vehicle for new teachings
6. The Gita in Our Time: Performances
● Religious works ⇾ live also in words uttered with mouths an heard with ears,
specially for Indian religious: The Gita is an oral dialogue
● The Gita is recited and explicated orally ⇾ in several contemporary settings
● Print proliferation hasn’t put an end to oral performances ⇾ it has encouraged
and facilitated them
● Remarkable variety of performances
⇾Private household readings, family and neighborhood recitation sessions, in
temples, in pilgrimage places, in halls and auditoriums in every city, college
classrooms
⇾Operas: 2005, John Adams “Doctor Atomic” (Oppenheimer) the protagonist
sings translated passages from the Gita
⇾Audible incarnations, CDs in indian music shops and on the Internet. John
Coltrane in 1968: free jazz composition by chanting a translated passage from
the Gita. Psychedelic rock group. Jimi Hendrix
Glossary
